1) Margaret Kemnah wins the eighth grade girls’ race for the Galena Growlers in the first NICA race of the 2025 season. She is also the Growlers’ current points leader with 500 points. (Submitted Photo), 2) Seventh grader Cassidy Murphy competes in her first race as a Galena Growler, where she finished fourth. (Submitted Photo)

LIBERTY – The Galena Growlers Composite Mountain Bike Team traveled down to a cold and windy Liberty for its first race of the 2025 Spring NICA NY Mountain Bike season on April 27. This was supposed to be the second race originally but the first race was cancelled due to snow – which now makes the NY NICA season a four-race series vice five. Eight Growlers made the trip, including seven seasoned NICA racers and one first timer. It was a great day of racing for the Galena Growlers, with all eight riders finishing their race, and four riders making the podium and bringing home some hardware.

The day started with two Growler middle school girls racing. Eighth grader Margaret Kemnah from South New Berlin (Unadilla Valley) and seventh grader Cassidy Murphy (homeschooler) raced in their respective categories – in a three lap 2.2 mile race loop. For Cassidy, it was her first time racing NICA. Both girls ended up on the podium, with Cassidy finishing in fourth place for the seventh grade girls (out of 8 riders), while Margaret won her eighth grade girls race (out of 7 riders). Both girls rode great races for our first race of the season. Margaret is now the points leader, going in to the second race. For Cassidy, it was her first NICA race and thus first time making the podium. They’ve both been training hard with season goals of making the podium and right out the gate they are doing it.

The next Growlers to hit the race course were our Growler middle school boys eighth grader John Gracey of Sherrill, and seventh grader Eli Mondics of Sherburne (homeschool). John raced to a sixth place finish (out of 17 riders) in the eighth grade boy’s race, and Eli rode to a ninth place finish (out of 29 riders).

Following the middle school boys’ races, the high school boys hit the race course. Their course was 2.5 miles long. The Growlers had four high school boys racing, one racer in each of the high school race categories, Varsity (5-laps), Junior Varsity (4-laps), sophomore and freshman (each 3-laps).

In the Varsity race, South New Berlin’s (Unadilla Valley) Alex Kemnah raced to a fourth place podium finish (out of 11 riders) in his 5-lap race. Varsity is an extremely tough competitive category; a race that takes well over an hour to complete the 5-laps. Alex has been training very hard. Alex was the NY JV State Champion last year and moving up to Varsity level is a big move. He raced a very strong, smart race and his fourth place finish is excellent.

In the JV race, Damien Murphy (homeschooler) finished in 12th place in his 4-lap race (out of 30 riders). The Growlers were represented by Amon Oliver of Norwich in the sophomore race (3-laps), where he finished on the podium for the first time in fourth place (out of 14 riders). Finishing out the high school Growler racers in the Freshman race was eighth grader Malakai Hagenbuch (Norwich) who raced his 3-lap race to finish in eighth place (out of 27 riders). Malakai, last year’s seventh grade boys State Champion, wanted a challenge and moved up to Freshman instead of racing in the eighth grade boy’s category. Great job, Malakai.

It was cold. It was windy. It was muddy. All eight riders started, all eight finished. That’s always a great day. To have four podiums at the end of the day – just great These kids are all heart. From the “Go-Go-Go” start of the race, to the end of 3, 4 or 5 laps – it’s the kids, their fitness, their drive, their determination, and heart – as well as their bike handling skills – out in the woods, up hill and down over some very technical terrain, and in places deep soft mud – these kids are experiencing what I consider the most intense and demanding exertion sport there is in middle and high school. These kids raced anywhere from 55 to 85 minutes and all their hard work and determination has paid off. From the time the race starts, you never know what’s going to happen – someone could crash, they could get a flat tire, break a chain, or have some other mechanical issue once you’re out on the course. It’s the kid, the bike and everything out on the course.

Our Growler Coaches are very proud of how our Growler kids did today. We’re a small team relative to the bigger teams from Syracuse, Albany and downstate areas, but we’re very competitive. We’ve got a great area here in Chenango County to train on mountain bikes. That helps.

Out of 19 high school teams, the Growlers HS team finished 11th overall with 1473 points, just four points out of 10th place. We don’t have any high school girls and that kills us team-wise – as in team scoring, it’s the best score out of the possible 3 scoring combinations of (B=Boy, G-Girl) BBBG, BBGG, BGGG) and thus we score BBBG where the G = zero points. It always hurts team-wise not having a girl racer.

The Growlers’ second race of the season was supposed to be on May 4, down at Lippman Park in Wawarsing, NY, but that race was postponed and moved to June 1. The next race for the Growlers could be May 18th in Salem, NY.

“We’re just hoping for some better weather after the rough winter/spring we’ve had. If you see us Growlers out riding our bikes while you’re driving in town, please give these hard-working kids a honk!”

-Information from the Galena Growlers